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Dwain Chambers has been told that he can compete at the 2012 Olympic Games, after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) overturned the British Olympic Association's policy on lifetime bans.
The BOA had been challenged on the issue by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), who suggest that athletes who test positive for banned substances be banned for a maximum of two years.
The new ruling means that Dwain Chambers and cyclist David Millar can attempt to qualify for the 2012 Olympic team.
Both will have to make the Olympic 'A' qualifying standard first, but should they achieve that, then it will be very difficult for selectors to over-look them.
According to CAS, the BOA's bylaw was “not in compliance with the WADA Code.”
This means that Chambers' Olympic ban has effectively been lifted, nine years after testing positive for designer drug THG.
As such Chambers did not compete for Team GB at the 2008 Olympic Games after the BOA effectively handed him a lifetime ban from competing.
The BOA have found themselves locked in a legal battle with WADA over the issuing of lifetime bans, a ruling the British body introduced more than 20 years ago.
London 2012 chairman Lord Sebastian Coe recently suggested that sporting organisations needed to have autonomy in deciding their teams, while Olympic hero Sir Chris Hoy claimed that sport would be taking a backwards step if Olympic bans were overturned.
"It will be sad if we have to fall in line with the rest of the world,” he said. “I don't see anything wrong with having more stringent rules. I think it should be the rest of the world that's falling in line with our rules."
